The popularity of sporting events in the United States and around the world has been growing at an unprecedented pace and shows few signs of slowing down. In sports such as golf, football, auto racing, basketball and baseball, etc., one of the more popular forms of advertising that companies purchase is what is called “logo advertising.” Logo advertising generally consists of positioning a corporate logo on an article of clothing that is worn by the event participants. Although sporting teams derive substantial revenue from logo advertising on clothing such as caps, shirts or jerseys, for example, there is a significant deficiency in products specialized for women and children who are equally as enthusiastic as men about the sporting teams they follow.
Women following sporting events oftentimes dislike the standard baseball caps, visors and jerseys available for purchase and would prefer to wear something more feminine if it were available to them. There are currently no known tiaras on the market that display corporate logo advertising. Furthermore, there are no known tiaras on the market that allow versatility to the user by allowing the user to switch out the element being displayed on the tiara, whether it be a corporate logo, symbol, insignia, photograph, business card, or other display element.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,866,204 discloses a flexible tiara which projects upwardly from a headgear, such as a hairnet or skull cap, and can be attached to the headgear by threading loops contained on the headgear through a series of apertures on the surface of the tiara. The tiara is made of a resilient and flexible material, such as textile, and can thus be manipulated around the head of the wearer such that each aperture of the tiara can be attached to each loop of the headgear. There is no teaching of an additional display element on the outer surface of the tiara, nor is there any teaching of the interchangeability of a display element.
While baseball caps and hats having interchangeable logos are known in the art, these clothing items typically use a hook and pile fastening material such as VELCRO as a method of attaching and detaching elements. However, there are associated disadvantages with the use of this fastening method for an extended period of time and/or after repeated changing of elements, such as degradation of the VELCRO material itself. For example, the pile material eventually pulls away from the stiffening material and therefore the appearance of the elements is compromised. Furthermore, oftentimes these types of fasteners can be very difficult to remove and consequently, much force is exerted on the pile material which can result in the pile material stretching or even ripping after repeated removal of elements. This rough handling of the elements being interchanged also encourages the elements to break, tear or tatter as they are switched in and out over time.
Furthermore, baseball caps and visors have a smooth substrate upon which fastening elements may be secured which is optimal for the use of hook and pile fastening materials. While VELCRO may work well for attaching fabric elements together, this type of attachment method is not preferred when attaching a display element to a surface having a varying depth, wide gaps between surfaces and a surface with thin wire patterns with the wire sometimes having indentations thereon. The outside surface of a tiara includes all of these aforementioned characteristics and therefore presents additional challenges in developing and designing a fastening method which allows a display element to be attached/detached with ease by the wearer and without damaging the tiara or display element after repeated use. Clothing and baseball caps having a cloth or fabric substrate are thus very easy to manipulate, pierce, puncture, and bend in comparison to the front surface of a tiara.
It is also desirable to have a tiara having interchangeable display elements which are aesthetically pleasing such that none or little of the securing means can be viewed. In particular, there are no tiaras known to have an interchangeable securing means which is hidden from the onlooker and also allows elements of varying shapes and sizes to be interchanged with ease by providing an element to the securing means which allows for adjustability.
As a result, there is a need for a tiara having interchangeable display elements which are secured to the tiara using a sturdy fastening method such as that which is disclosed herein. Such fastening method has various advantages over other methods such as glue, tape, or double sided tape which have proven to be messy, difficult to use, unreliable for the wearer and not aesthetically pleasing.